CiiKuIiaif Jntumuloifibt. 



Vol. XXXV. LONDON, JULY, 1903. No. 



A COLEOPTEROUS CONUNDRUM. 



BY ANNIE TRUMBULL SLOSSON. 



A year ago. May 1902, I had a peculiar entomological experience. 

 I had returned from Florida to my home in New York about the middle 

 of April, had spent two or three weeks arranging and classifying ray 

 captures of the winter, sending off duplicates and doubtful species to 

 specialists, and preparing my collection for the summer months of my 

 absence. A full fortnight must pass before I should leave town for my 

 New Hampshire summer home, and I already pined for a little collecting. 

 Suddenly I recalled the existence of some old boxes of insects which had 

 been crowded out of my regular collection-room some years before. They 

 were in a closet opening from a hall on the second floor. This closet had 

 been built especially for the preservation of woollen clothing and its 

 protection from ravages of the devouring moth, its walls, shelves and 

 drawers being made of red cedar. But after a period of many years — 

 nearly forty, I think — the wood has lost its protective odour, and the place 

 is often visited by insect pests. It, however, still bears the name of the 

 " cedar-closet," and here had been stored for several years the overflow 

 from ray collection. In a leisure hour, one chilly May day, feeling a 

 touch of the entomologist's iitful fever, I said to a friend, in a sportive 

 mood, " I am going to try the cedar-closet, who knows what discoveries 

 I niay make in those old boxes of bugs ?" As unconscious of the great 

 discovery awaiting me there as was probably Isaac Newton before that 

 attractedly gravitating apple fell to the ground, I started on my quest. 

 The first box I opened contained lepidojjtera from Franconia, chiefly 

 moths, taken several years before, and of little value or rarity. It was a 

 wreck, clouds of dust rose from it as I lifted the cover, and broken bits of 

 wings and bodies rolled about as I moved the box. Disagreeable, stealthy 

 Anthrenus larvae, of all sizes, glided about among the ruins. Of course 

 this must be attended to, and the infested specimens thrown away ; so I 

 carried the box with its contents to ray room for further examination, 



